Implications of Obamacare, CRP tax ruling for agriculture

Delta Farm Press had two conversations with Dr. Roger McEowen, professor of ag law and director of the Center of Agricultural Law and Taxation at Iowa State, to learn more about Obamacare and CRP rulings will impact agriculture this year.

Mar 25, 2014

Affordable Care Act

Farmers have been watching the news on how the Affordable Care Act of 2010 could impact them and their health insurance. Our sister publication, Delta Farm Press, interviewed Dr. Roger McEowen, professor of ag law and director of the Center of Agricultural Law and Taxation at Iowa State, to learn more about a tax law provision that will impact farmers and ranchers across the country.

McEowen said that there is one particular provision that adds an additional 3.8 percent tax on passive sources of income, which can include royalty income and cash rental income that many farmers, ranchers and landowners may have.

CRP ruling

Delta Farm Press had another conversation with McEowen, and this time the focus was on the Conservation Reserve Program and the ruling last year that made that CRP income subject to self-employment tax. Watch the interview to learn more about the ruling, which involved a Texas resident who inherited farm land in South Dakota.

“He was not a farmer and, in fact, worked for the University of Texas when he inherited this farmland,” said McEowen in the interview. “He bought out his siblings and wound up owning all of the farmland. He hired a local farmer who initially farmed it for him. Then he put it in the CRP and had the local farmer meet the contract obligations.”